Conventionally, lamp shades are manufactured in a formed or erected condition prior to being shipped. These lamp shades require considerable and inordinate amounts of storage and shipping space compared to the weight of the materials. While tapered or frusto-conical shades may be provided which can be nested or stacked, the nest or stack of shades still requires a large volume of space. These lamp shades may also have decorative covers with irregular surfaces such as trim strips at the upper and lower edges. When the lamp shades are packaged and shipped in a fully assembled condition, they can be damaged and the trim strips can be torn for a variety of reasons including damage to the box or container and tearing of the trim strips during separation of the nested shades.
Another consideration is that modern merchandising practices often require items, such as lamp shades, to be shipped and stored in individual packages for convenient delivery to a customer. This means that the economies that could otherwise be gained from nesting or stacking a number of lamp shades in a single carton are often not available notwithstanding the inherent problem of possible damage. Lamp shades which are preassembled or manufactured in erected condition simply cannot be economically and safely stored and shipped in individual containers.
Numerous attempts have been made to construct collapsible or knockdown lamp shades which can be stored and shipped compactly and later assembled by the consumer. However, these shades have often lacked aesthetic design features and have required additional difficult fabrication or assembly steps such as adhesively or mechanically applying trim strips and the like to the shade. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,632, a lamp shade assembly is proposed which utilizes a preformed assembly ring to which lamp shade material is attached and to which decorative trimming also must be attached. Also, these shades have often utilized shade material and assembly rings which are totally devoid of any decorative treatment. Hence, it may be seen that in knockdown or collapsible lamp shades of the type previously proposed, additional operations or modifications would be required in order to apply decorative treatment.
Moreover, where the trim material is adhesively attached to a continuous plastic assembly strip, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,362, the trim material can become detached due to stresses on the adhesive bonding. This may occur as a result of packaging and storing the strip in a relatively flat container. Further, it would be desirable in some instances to provide a knockdown lamp shade having a pleated shell which may be attached to an assembly ring to form a highly decorative, fashionable shade. This has not previously been contemplated in knockdown shades. Since lamp shade assembly kits, such as the one proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,287, make no provision for accommodating a pleated shell, such kits have lacked the versatility desired in a knockdown or collapsible lamp shade.
Finally, knockdown lamp shades that have been proposed have often required difficult assembly procedures. This is the case, for example, with the assembly proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,362, which utilizes a continuous assembly ring having a channel which is smaller in width at the entrance thereof than the thickness of the hoop to be inserted into the channel and which fails to provide any diametral clearance for insertion of the hoop into the channel. As a result, a need has remained for a decorative, easily assembled knockdown lamp shade assembly capable of use by the ordinary consumer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a kit including an assembly ring, a hoop, and a cover member for assembling a decorative knockdown lamp shade which may be economically manufactured, and stored and shipped in a substantially flat container.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a kit for assembling a lamp shade from parts without tools and with minimum effort and skill.
A further object of the present invention is the provision in a lamp shade kit of an assembly ring which is preformed to receive and retain a hoop and a flexible shade with an integral decorative pattern on its outer surface.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a kit for assemblying a lamp shade having spaced apart outer surface identations on an assembly ring to receive adhesive by which a pleated shade covering may be attached to the ring.
A further object of the present invention is the provision in a lamp shade kit of an assembly ring having a channel with a mouth portion of equal or greater width than the thickness of a hoop to facilitate assembly.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a kit for assemblying a lamp shade including an assembly ring having a channel with a recess of sufficient depth to provide clearance for convenient insertion of a hoop during assembly.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.